Friends are the best cure
by tashaxxx
Summary: Modern au where the characters of infernal devices are in school. But what is the secret Jem is hiding and what are these feelings will has for his best friend
1. Chapter 1

Jem sat nervously at the edge of seat, waiting for a boy the teachers said would be showing him around the school. He was nervous about starting a new school but no less nervous than all the other times he'd been forced to. After all, his foster father moved around so much Jem was used to it by now, though he couldn't help but miss the hustle and bustle of shanghai. While he knew English like he'd been born into it he missed the rolling sound of his mother tongue.

At this moment the door to the receptionist was pushed open and Jem came face to face with a black haired boy with the brightest blue eyes he'd ever seen.

"You must be James Carstairs then." the body had a Welsh accent, Jem noted as his own silver eyes met the stranger blue ones.

"Everyone calls me Jem." he winced at the quiet tone of his voice.

"We'll, that not exactly special if everyone calls you it. I'm Will Herondale." Jem held out his hand to shake Will's, remembering the lessons on manners his mother had always taught him. Will snorted but shook it anyway.

Both boys stood like that for a moment, surveying eachother. They were the same age, both being 12 years old and skinny. Nearly the same height Jem didn't feel quite so small as henusually did around the men his foster father introduced him to. Thinking of Yanlou made Jem cringe and he dropped the other boys hand as if it had caught fire.

Will wasn't deterred, he simply started to talking to Jem ashe led the other boy from the office and down the corridor. Neither would have thought that the makings of a beautiful friendship had just begun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the reviews didn't expect to get any do thank you**

"So, who's going to this party tonight then?" Will asked, swinging his arm around Jew's shoulder. Ever since he and Jem had met they'd been inseparable, though at first Will had been none too pleased with being stuck with the new student.

"I will be." Gabriel stated, glancing a side ways look at Cecily, which made Will frown at him. Gideon had his arm around Sophie as he nodded his answer.

"Sorry, Will I can't." this caused Will to frown, dropping his arm and turning to look at Jem. The first time they'd met, Jem had had black hair but his hair had steadily turned a bright mercury silver. Will had asked him about it once but the reaction Jem had given him had been so startling Will had never brought it up again.

"Why not?" Tessa asked. Tessa was the newest to the group, coming from America on a scholarship. She'd fit in brilliantly with them all though and Jem seemed to really like her. That hurt Will a little. Though he'd never said anything, he'd had a little crush on Jem upon the first time he'd met him but he didn't want to ruin the best friendship he'd ever had by mentioning it to Jem.

"Yanlou." jem's voice was soft but Will still clenched his hands. He'd met Jem's foster father once and he'd never hated a man more than he hated this one. It was at the beginning of their friendship and Jem had been sick off school so Will being Will decided to surprise him. Yanlou had answered the door and told him to never come near the house again and to stay away from Jem. Of course Jem apologised for the behaviour and they remained friends but Will had never been able to shake the feeling of something not being right.

"You're so dull Jem." Cecily laughed, none of the others having heard what Jem had said. Except for Tessa who was frowning at the silver haired boy.

Jem just smiled and ducked his head while the others continued talking. Will remained silent though, eyes trained on Jem. Something was wrong. The other boy was trembling slightly and his normally bright silver eyes had gone even brighter, the black almost none-existant.

"You okay?" Tessa leant Towards Jem who smiled sweetly at her. A pain stabbed at Will's heart but he ignored, pulling on a smirk as he started to flick balls of paper at Gabriel, resolutely ignoring how close Jem and Tessa where beside him.

...

"You have to come." Will whispered as their Maths teacher drowned on in the background. Jem ignored Will, eyes on the equations the teacher was writing on the board. "Itll be fun and you never sneak out. You've got to do it at least once in your life."

"What's your excuse then, William." Jem said with an exaggerated eye roll as Will tapped his pencil on the edge of his desk.

"Do you like Tessa?" the question caused Jem off guard and he dropped his pen on the floor.

"of course I do, she's our friend." Jem replied, ignoring the way his hand shook as he picked up the pencil.

"James, I meant do you like her?" Will raised an eyebrow and Jem felt his cheeks flush. He hadn't thought about it but maybe he did. Certainly Tessa was a beautiful girl and she was good company. But Jem had long since accepted he loved someone else entirely. Someone he could never tell his feelings to. "Then you have to come to the party." Will had obviously taken Jem's silence as confirmation.

Sighing, Jem nodded. "Fine, if it shuts you up." Will grinned as they both turned back to the board. Jem just hoped he hadn't done something incredibly stupid.

...?...

Yanlou was in a good mood when Jem walked into the house after school. He grunted at Jem, pointing to the table where his dinner and a small punch stood. Ignoring the food, Jem grabbed the punch up and opened it. A small dose of yin fen sat in the punch, glittering in the light.

When Jem was a child, after his parents had died, he'd ended up on the street, having no family to bring him in. Yanlou had picked him up for whatever reason Jem still didn't understand. The man had been alright at first, giving Jem space and freedom but over time he'd become demanding. Jem couldnt leave the house, couldn't have friends, had to be home by a certain time. The first few time, Jem had broken the rules, causing Yanlou to become angry.

Jem didn't remember when the man had begun giving him the drug. All he knew was one mornings woke up coughing, shivering and sweating and been told that he would have to take the yin fen to make it stop. Being only 11 at the time, Jem had agreed and he'd never stopped since.

"I'll be out tonight. A poker game so I expect you to behave yourself." Jem couldn't belive his luck as he dropped the silvery substance into the water and drank it. Yanlou watched him with cold deadness as the boy drank the water. "No night time gallivanting, Jian." Yanlou warned, using the Chinese name his mother had given him. Jem winced but said nothing as the drug took effect.

His limbs loosened and his pupils dilated as Yanlou spoke, Jem not listening to a word. "Understand that if you leave this house you will be punished." Yanlous cold hard voice in jem's ear made the younger jump outmoded his trancelike state.

"I understand." Jem replied, schooling his features as he thought of will. His fingers were itching to move by the time Yanlou sent him upstairs an hour later. Pulling out his violin, Jem closed his eyes and let himself be whisked away to happier times while he waited for Yanlou to leave.

 **Chapters will be longer now so hope you enjoy and please review**


	3. Chapter 3

Will waited at the end of Jem's street, watching the cars past. Jem lived in one of the more rundown areas of town but that had never bothered Will. Occasionally, noises could be made out from inside the houses but one noise made Will's heart stutter in his chest. Jem's violin. The music soared through the air in a beautifully sorrowful melody that made Will both want to cry and leap with joy.

Jem was a fantastic musician but he so rarely played for Will that whenever the other boy heard it his heart leapt. Sometimes, Will would linger outside the music room at school listening until Jem started to carefully pack away his violin and Will would saunter in as jif he'd come straight from class.

A car starting up outside Jem's house muffled the music and Will hid in the shadows as Yanlou drove his car away from the house. Will waited with baited breath until he ecould make out Jem's slight figure locking the front door. A hood covered Jem's silver hair but his eyes were a bright silver that showed a glint of mischief in them.

"You made it then?" Will asked, heading down the street and trying to ignore the tight fitting black jeans Jem was wearing.

"no, Will you're imagining me." Jem's sarcastic tone made the other boy laugh.

"Better you than the ducks." Jem grinned at that, a grin that lit up his face even as he rolled his silver eyes.

"The ducks won't kill you."

"That's what you think. When the ducks take over the world, know that I saw it coming James." the two boys laughed at this.

...

Tessa stood by a table of drinks when Jem came toasting next to her. So far, she'd only managed a quick hello to the older boy before Jem and will disappeared again. "A drink?" Jem asked, holding out a drink in his usual old fashioned way.

"I'm not drinking." Tessa replied, motioning to her coke.

"Neither am I." Jem replied with a small smile. The first time Tessa had come into the school she'd been so nervous about the new people and environment. She'd never left New York let alone gone to London but here she way in a new place with no one but her brother for company and he brother was nearly always out working or gambling.

"Where's Will?" Jemmpointed over to where Will and jessamine were standing arguing.

"He won't miss me." Jem's smile made Tessa's heart race just asmitnhad the firstmtike she met him in the music room. She'd gotten lost and jemnhad been there, playing his violin. He'd stopped and said 'will is that you?' as odd as it sounded it was the beginning of a good friendship.

"I think you underestimate your ability to make him happy." Jem blushed at this. It had been Jem who had introduced her to the others. Jem who was so kind and sweet and caring who had made her feel at home.

Sophie had become a dear friend, being in the same year and the same classes as her. Gideon and Gabriel were friends too, though she rarely talked to them as they were both older than her. Cecily was a close friend and other than Jem was the only one who could deal with will. Jessamine, a blonde haired annoying girl, was something of an anomaly but Tessa still liked her company. Even if she and will were constantly at eachother throats.

Then there was Charlotte and her husband Henry. They were a young couple who Sophie, Will and jessamine lived with. Tessa had learnt that Will and his parents weren't close though had never learnt why and that Sophie and jessamine had both lost their parents in accidents. The Branwells had taken them in and they were more than happy to allow the others to stay when they had difficulty at home.

And then there was Jem and Will. The two boys were enigmas in their own right but they were the closest friends Tessa could have asked for.

Will was brash, boisterous and not a little annoying but he was also kind and sweet when he wanted to be. Jem was the opposite of Will, quiet and kind and always putting others before himself. Tessa loved them both but she knew what the two boys would never admit. Will and Jem were rarely separate. If you befriended one you had no choice but to accept the other and god help you if you hurt of the boys.

Will was especially protective of Jem but Tessa had witnessed Jem tear down a boy who had gotten Will detention for starting a fight with black haired boy. And they loved eachother. Neither of them would admit it but Tessa had noticed it. The way Jem looked at Will when he thought he wasn't looking or the way Will always had his arm around Jem. The problem was, neither seemed to want to admit it and Tessa found it to no end frustrating.

...

Jem was drunk. He hadn't meant to get drunk but he thinks someone might have put vodka or something in his drink. Either way, he knows he's drunk and he knows there is no hiding it. Which is a problem.

Gabriel and cecilymare currently dancing in the middle of the room, spilling their drinks on the floor as Jem leans into Wills shoulder. "We're gonna get kicked out soon." Will comments, pressing his face into jem's silvery hair which sends shivers down jem's back.

"I'm surprised Charlotte and Henry have let it go on this long." Jem says, spilling liquid onto the sofa he and will are currently sat on.

"They're good like that." Will stated just as the small figure of charlotte branded came downstairs. "Or not." the two burst into laughter as the small woman cleared the house of people.

Soon the only ones left were Jem, Will, the lightwood, Cecily, Sophie and Tessa. None of them were sober and Jem highly doubted any of their ability to walk upstairs let alone him. "My rooms free if you want."

Will and Jem had shared beds more times than either could count. It seemed whenever Yanlou was away on business Jem would come and stay with will. Except this time was different. This time jem's absence would be noted and this time Jem felt a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he shouldn't be feeling for his best friend.

"sounds like a good idea." Jem grinned even as his brain shouted it was so not a good idea.

 **Bit of a filler but hope you enjoyed please review**


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